Organizations such as on-line retailers, Internet service providers, search providers, financial institutions, universities, and other computing-intensive organizations often conduct computer operations from large scale computing facilities. Such computing facilities house and accommodate a large amount of server, network, and computer equipment to process, store, and exchange data as needed to carry out an organization's operations. Typically, a computer room of a computing facility includes many server racks. Each server rack, in turn, includes many servers and associated computer equipment.
Some computer systems, such as servers, include a number of components that are mounted in an interior of the computer systems. Such components include printed circuit boards, mass storage devices, storage device controllers, power supplies, processors, and other similar components. The components may be connected to one or more other components in the computer system via data cables. Also power cables may supply power to one or more of the components in a computer system from one or more power supply units.
In some cases, a computer system mounted in a rack includes one or more hot-pluggable electronic components, which can be added, removed, swapped, etc. from a computer system without powering down the computer system. Hot-pluggable electronic components in a computer system are often mounted at an external side of the computer system, including a “front” side through which cooling air is received into the computer system, to enable simplified access to the components for removal, addition, swapping, etc. In addition, mounting hot-pluggable electronic components to an external side of the computer system enables hot swapping without moving the computer system itself. Mounting hot-pluggable electronic components throughout the depth of the computer system interior can hamper hot-swapping efforts while maintaining operations by other hot-pluggable electronic components. Furthermore, as indicated above, mounting hot-pluggable electronic components throughout the depth of the interior can result in preheating of cooling air which removes heat from some components which are downstream of other components, which can reduce cooling efficiency and can negatively affect component performance.
In some cases, a computer system that includes hot-pluggable electronic components includes a cable management arm that manages cables connected to the components as a moveable tray is moved into and out of the computer system. A cable management arm may include one or more structural components that move with a moveable tray when the tray is moved out of a computer system and that retract with a moveable tray when the tray is moved into a computer system. Computer systems mounted in a rack may require separate cable management arms for each computer system mounted in a rack. A cable management arm may include multiple structural components and additional lengths of cable that add additional weight to a computer system. The structural components and additional lengths of cable of a cable management arm may occupy a volume in a server chassis that would otherwise be available to mount electronic components and may block air flow within the chassis.
The various embodiments described herein are susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms. Specific embodiments are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the disclosure to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.